Happy tears (almost) for these teachers!

I could have cried tears of happiness yesterday during one of my training sessions (I almost did, had to stop myself actually). It was one of the most satisfying days as a teacher. I was finishing up training at Mercy’s Village Primary School: the last day we were working through a book report project with the teachers. Here, there is next to no reading culture and certainly no reading for pleasure. Teachers had been asked to read a novel before the training (most were reading an abridged version of a classic) and then we worked through different levels of writing book reports. On the last day we worked on quite a longer book report project. I was just so impressed with the level of thinking from the teachers! The deep connections they were making with the text and themselves and the world around them. It truly was encouraging…

There is life after phonics in Gulu… (didn’t think I would be teaching these exciting literacy things here so soon!)

Maybe other teachers will understand this excitement… but it was quite a breakthrough with level of thinking and stretching the teachers.